Lion Air Commercial Jet Crashes Into Sea With 188 Aboard

Around 7:24 p.m. Sunday night, contact was lost between the airport in Jakarta and Lion Air flight JT610. The Lion Air flight JT610 is a Boeing 737 passenger plane that had 188 people on board when radar contact was lost. The flight had just taken off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

The flight lost contact with ground control just minutes after taking off from Jakarta and was last seen by radar crossing the sea. The flight wasn't just any Boeing 737, it was a brand new model, the Boeing 737 MAX 8. The flight took off around 6:20 local time Monday morning and was scheduled to arrive in Pangkal Pinang in one hour.

Relatives of the 188 passengers and crew are left in distress as an image from Depati airport where the flight was supposed to land shows. A news conference with officials confirmed the plane had 178 adults, 1 infant and two babies aboard as passengers. Another two pilots and five cabin crew were also aboard.

Lion Air spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro said, "We can confirm that one of our flights has lost contact. Its position cannot be ascertained yet. Images of debris are already circulating the internet with rescuers searching for unlikely survivors at sea. The National Search and Rescue Agency has requested assistance from the Indonesian air force to help locate the remains of the craft at sea just off of Java.

A report to Jakarta Search and Rescue Office says several crews spotted the Lion Air flight as it fell from the sky and several vessels immediately headed to the crash site. Officials from Indonesia’s Lion Air say they lost contact with the passenger jet shortly after it flew off the island of Sumatra.

Airline Chief executive Edward Sirait said, "We cannot give any comment at this moment. We are trying to collect all the information and data." The Boeing 737 MAX 8 has only been in operation since 2016 but Indonesia has not had the best record for missing flights.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 became infamous as one of the worst Airliner accidents for the simple fact that it was never located. A lengthy investigation revealed the pilot committed suicide with the plane by crashing into the ocean on March 8, 2014. That flight will certainly raise questions about this latest Lion Air crash.